By Kevin Ferrisi –
She has a passion for love, a zest for fashion, an excitement for music, and a strong devotion to drag. Her kind heart radiates with her very presence. It’s a pure and genuine energy she brings to the stage. If you haven’t met her yet, Dro Lopez-Fierce has captured the attention of Connecticut drag fans and continues to redefine what it means to do drag. Her stunning beauty captivates audiences, and her sickening dance moves command control over the stage. She is the complete package and a shining star.
Dro started doing drag after returning home from school in 2016. Having never experimented with makeup or fashion before, Dro became a fan of drag after being introduced to the art by the cultural television phenomenon, RuPaul’s Drag Race, during the airing of season 2. Shortly after, she left for school in Oklahoma for a year and a half, focusing on cheerleading. Upon returning to Connecticut, she began to take a keen interest in the art of drag and decided to dive right into it.
As a form of self-expression, Dro started doing drag. Her time in Oklahoma was not a great experience for Dro, struggling with being gay in an environment that wasn’t the most welcoming. She found herself having to present herself in a more masculine manner as a way to suppress her identity as gay and ultimately non-binary. Watching Drag Race motivated Dro to step outside of her comfort zone, face her fears, and unapologetically experiment with makeup. During that time, her inner dialogue was, “I don’t want to have to live like this and live in fear. So I’m going to experiment with makeup, and no one can stop me.” Growing up, Dro always had an interest in fashion and often found herself flipping through fashion magazines. She was always so interested in pop culture and had a sense of knowing internally that she was a star.
Her drag name was actually a nickname she had from high school. One day, a crush she admired at the time, in an effort to get her attention, shouted “Dro!” – short for Pedro, her government first name. Following that day, her friends and classmates started referring to her as ‘Dro,’ and it stuck throughout the years. The word ‘Dro’ is also a nickname or short for ‘Hydro,’ slang for marijuana, which she enjoys, so the combination of meanings came together perfectly and became a name Dro really loved. Her last name, Lopez, is also her government last name. She decided to keep Lopez as her first drag last name as a way to honor her immediate and biological family for being such a big support system for her and her art. She told us, “My mom is my biggest fan while the rest of my family – Dad, big brother, and little sister – have been super supportive as well, attending many of my shows throughout my career.” Later, the hyphen with ‘Fierce’ was added after being inducted into the Haus of Fierce, the drag family of Connecticut’s own and from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Robin Fierce.
Dro became a member of the Fierce family in 2019. She met Robin Fierce in 2017 through her former drag mother (who no longer performs), who was friends with Robin and participated in an amateur drag competition with her called Tuck & Strut. Dro attended the show to support her former drag mom and met Robin Fierce along with local drag artists and drag sisters Angel Rivers and Harmony Valkyrie that same night, who were also competing in the competition. The chemistry was instant, and Robin and Dro became very close. Although Robin Fierce may be the mother of the Haus of Fierce, Dro’s biological mother has such a strong presence in her life, so Robin has always positively influenced Dro in relation to a sistership instead. She told us, “Robin has always been like a big sister to me.”
Her love of fashion translates perfectly through her drag style. Dro would describe her drag as being “like a supermodel” as she talks about being sample size off the runway. She said, “I like to be sexy, but I also love fashion. I love, love, love, love fashion. So I feel like I probably come off as a little bit of a look queen first. And then performance-wise, definitely a little theatrical, but still high energy.” Overall, her drag persona aligns with being kind-hearted, known as the sweetheart of the Haus of Fierce. “I just love love. I love to love things and to love people, and that’s always come through in my drag as well.”
Dro has a passion for performing and loves to be on stage. She deeply appreciates performance art and becomes so enthralled while performing that she often dissociates from the moment and becomes completely lost in the instant because of the pure passion she has for the art of performance. She describes the feeling as, “I don’t even see someone sometimes, obviously, I’ll grab tips, but even then, someone will hand me a twenty-dollar bill, and I won’t notice because I’m just going through the motions of performing.”
Doing drag has taught Dro more about who she is as a person. Drag provided her the platform to connect with her true self. She explained, “It has taught me that I identify as non-binary because I feel my drag persona isn’t so much a character to me; it’s like my feminine side rather than putting on a facade of some sort because drag can be an illusion. It is very much so with the makeup and the fashion. But it’s also not disconnected from my gender expression, so I feel like it’s taught me that I am non-binary honestly, and on the trans-spectrum.” For Dro, drag isn’t just about gender impersonation; it is a way for her to express a part of who she is. Drag has also taught Dro to make herself a priority and to truly take care of her own well-being. She went on to say, “As much as we love to perform and be on stage and do the splits and all that craziness, it’s such a big high, like an extreme high on that end, so on the other side of the spectrum of feeling emotion, when you’re feeling extremely low and don’t have that extreme high, it’s kind of taught me to take care of myself when I feel like that and not on stage.”
Looking back on Dro’s drag journey, she has much to be grateful for. She often finds herself in disbelief at being able to accomplish what she has in such a short time. One core memory she looks back on with such admiration was during a New York City Pride event. The Human Rights Campaign approached Dro presenting an opportunity for her and five other drag queens to accompany the non-profit on their pride float during the parade. She told us, “I think that by far was literally not only the best thing that’s happened to me in my drag career, but like, in my life. I cannot speak highly enough of that day because that’s simply like the best day of my life.” HRC reached out to Dro because of the frequent donations made to the organization on behalf of Sea Queens, Dro’s biweekly show partnered with The Port of Call in Mystic, CT.
During Dro’s drag career, she took a year or two off to focus on herself. Following the much-needed break, she felt ready again to hit the stage. After making this decision, by chance, she received a direct message on Instagram two days later from Jade Ayala, Beverage Director at The Port of Call, who didn’t even know she had taken a break, inquiring about a possible opportunity to curate her own drag show, as if the Universe was responding to the frequency of the decision she made. In disbelief, Dro excitedly accepted. After the initial meeting, Dro instantly felt the chemistry with The Port of Call, which birthed what is known today as Sea Queens.
She explained, “The Port of Call has been so great. I feel so, so, so blessed to have them in my life. I grew up in Mystic, and there was nothing like this before (drag shows) around Mystic, so to have three queer women running that establishment be interested in someone that hadn’t done drag in almost two years and be like, ‘we believe in you,’ it’s been life-changing.” As she began to get emotional, she continued, “My life has changed because of the show. Drag is so powerful. Sea Queens is everything to me. I feel the love of that place, and it is like that every time. It fulfills me beyond.” Sea Queens is a collaboration between Dro, Jade Ayala (Beverage Director), Renee Touponce (Executive Chef), and Nancy Hankins (General Manager) of The Port of Call, as well as DJ Edgewood, having their first show in May of 2022.
The world of drag is constantly evolving, and new drag performers emerge all the time. For someone just starting out in the world of drag, Dro’s advice would be, “Trial and error is everything. I think not being afraid to experiment with how you look or how you perform and how you carry yourself. It’s all about experimenting and finding your niche. It does take time. I feel like even seven years into this, I have just found what I like and my niche. It takes a while to get there, so experiment as much as you can and do it for you.” She went on to say, “Do it completely for you because you’re performing for an audience and also surrounded by many other queens. There’s going to be a lot of opinions and different points of views. But at the end of the day, take everything with a grain of salt and do that drag for you.”
In the future, Dro would love to continue to follow her passion for photography and pursue her photography business. Shortly after the pandemic in 2020, Dro applied her knowledge and opened her own small business as a new means of income. She always had a knack for taking photos, often taking them of herself, and decided to offer her skills to clients, launching Dro Lopez Studios. Dro’s first love is music. She finds great joy in singing and has been singing most of her life. She’s currently exploring new producers and plans to record music for release. You can catch Dro Lopez-Fierce popping up at shows all over the state. You can also catch Dro biweekly at The Port of Call in Mystic, CT for Sea Queen’s on every other Sunday throughout the month.
Leave a Reply